This invention relates to a product of fish meat paste simulating in both taste and texture the meat of macrura such as shrimp, prawn, and lobster. In the specification the term "shrimp" will be representatively used to refer to any of the macrura only for simplicity of expression and not for limitation of the scope of the invention in any sense.
Many people like shrimp meat since it contains little fat and has not only a light flavor but also a texture which causes a particular oral sensation or a kind of resistance to mastication when the meat is eaten.
In recent years, due to various causes such as indiscriminate fishing or restriction on fishing within the 200-mile territorial waters, the catch of shrimps is decreasing so that the supply cannot meet the demand.
To improve the situation attempts have been made to provide substitutes for shrimp meat, one of which comprises a fish meat paste coagulated and seasoned with a flavor like that of shrimp meat.
One type of simulated shrimp meat now on the market comprises nothing more than a coagulated fish meat paste mixed with shrimp meat or the essence extracted therefrom so that it has merely a taste or flavor similar to that of shrimp meat. The known simulated shrimp meat does not have the texture of real shrimp meat which gives a particular oral sensation or a kind of crispness combined with elasticity. Indeed there have been no substitutes for shrimp meat which satisfy the consumers with respect to the complex oral sensation experienced upon biting them.
In the marine product industry various studies and experiments have been and may be being conducted to produce a substitute for shrimp meat which has not only a flavor but also a texture similar to that of real shrimp meat. To the best knowledge of the present inventors, however, there have been no technical reports or literature on the method of producing a simulated shrimp meat having such a texture as to give substantially the same oral sensation as real shrimp meat when it is eaten.
With respect to the crab, a crustacean like shrimp, there has already been on the market a substitute which has not only a flavor similar to that of real crab meat but also a texture which gives substantially the same oral sensation as if real crab meat was eaten.
A method of providing a substitute for crab meat by imparting to coagulated fish meat paste both flavor and texture similar to those of real crab meat is disclosed in Japanese unexamined patent publication No. 54-14552. According to this method, fish meat paste is molded into a predetermined shape, which is shredded into fiber-like pieces having a diameter of about 1 mm. The fiber-like pieces are assembled and heated to form a solid mass of a predetermined shape which has an integral surface layer covering internal fiber-like pieces bound together with such a degree of binding force that when bitten the fiber-like pieces are separated.
It is also publicly known to bind together the fiber-like pieces into a solid mass by means of a binder made of fish meat "surimi".
The "surimi", a Japanese word, used herein means the fish meat obtained in the following manner: The guts are removed from a fish, which is then crushed or squeezed so that somewhat mashed flesh or meat is separated from the skin, head, bones, and other components of the fish. The separated mass of meat is then rinsed in water so that water-soluble proteins are removed from the meat. The fish meat thus obtained is "surimi".
The above known method has been successful in producing a simulated crab meat resembling real crab meat in taste and texture. By this known method, however, it has been impossible to produce a simulated shrimp meat which is similar to real shrimp meat in both taste and texture.
The reasons why this is so are believed to be as follows: Crab meat comprises a plurality of bundles of muscle fibers arranged lengthwise, each bundle having a diameter of 1 mm to 2 mm. When crab meat is bitten by the teeth, the bundles of muscle fibers are separated into individual bundles or fibers giving a particular oral sensation or a kind of resistance to mastication to the person who is eating crab meat. Therefore, if a plurality of fibers made of fish meat paste and having a diameter of about 1 mm are put together to form a solid mass which has an integral surface layer covering the internal fibers bound together so that the fibers are separable when bitten, it is possible to produce a simulated crab meat which resembles real crab meat in texture.
On the other hand, shrimp meat comprises a plurality of muscle fibers each several to several hundred .mu.m in diameter closely intertwined. When shrimp meat is bitten into to break or cut the component muscle fibers, the biting teeth are somewhat elastically resisted as if the fibers had shearing stresses of two different degrees, that is, a stronger stress and a weaker one, which are believed to cause the previously described particular oral sensation or kind of crispness combined with elasticity. With the above-mentioned known method, however, it has been found impossible to produce a texture similar to that of shrimp meat in the products of fish meat paste.
Those skilled in the art might consider that if the above known method were advanced so that the molded product of fish meat paste were cut into minute fiber-like pieces of several to several hundred .mu.m, which were put together into a solid mass, the mass would have a texture similar to that of shrimp meat.
To the best knowledge of the present inventors, however, there are publicly known no technical means which enable cutting a molded solid product of fish meat paste into such minute fiber-like pieces as mentioned above. Should there be any such means, it would be impossible to have such fiber-like pieces so closely intertwined as in shrimp meat as to provide a substitute for shrimp meat with a texture which would give an oral sensation similar to that experienced when real shrimp meat was eaten.
In view of the foregoing the present inventors have conducted various studies and experiments and come to a conclusion that so long as fish meat paste alone is employed, it is utterly impossible to produce a texture similar to that of real shrimp meat in whatever manner the paste may have been processed, and at the same time found out that if fish meat paste is mixed with edible fibrous material, it is possible to impart to the coagulated product of the paste a texture which gives an oral sensation as if real shrimp meat was bitten.